Live with Kelly and Ryan set new largest elephant’s toothpaste record, covering their studio in foam

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Monday morning’s (18 June) Live with Kelly and Ryan on ABC has taken “fun” to an entirely new level after achieving the Largest Elephant’s Toothpaste Fountain with the help of teacher and author, Science Bob.

The hosts welcomed Science Bob to the show as he demonstrated the concepts behind the chemical reaction – one which produces an excess of colourful foam that bursts from a tube.

Prior to setting the record, Science Bob kickstarted the segment by teaching Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest a few interesting facts about the world of science, including how certain chemicals can change the colour of fire.

After showing the audience a smaller version of the elephant’s toothpaste, all participants were then ready to set a grand-scale version of the experiment.

To accomplish the world’s “largest” of this kind of experiment, two buckets of sodium iodide were poured into 40 litres of hydrogen peroxide causing hundreds of gallons of foam to spread across the studio.

You can watch the explosively entertaining results below:

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In total, the fountain measured 13.07 m³ (461 ft³ 967 in³), earning a brand new record title for hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, as well as expert Science Bob.

"It was always on my bucket list to set a Guinness World Record, And it made perfect sense to use science to accomplish that. The elephants toothpaste demonstration was such a fun and dramatic way to share the world of chemistry in a big way, and it ended up looking so amazing! Hopefully it might inspire others to shoot for their own record attempt." - Science Bob

This isn’t the first time that Science Bob has led a successful record attempt.

In fact, he appears in the Guinness World Records Science & Stuff book after being one of 30 teachers who took part in the attempt for the Most ping-pong balls released in zero-g, where 2,016 floating balls were released in an anti-gravity aircraft!

If you enjoyed watching this massive, record-breaking experiment take place, you can learn how to do more fun science activities by checking out the Make & Break section of our website.